Tesla’s redesigned second-generation Roadster drove up an inverted ramp, spun around, and eased back onto the pavement during a demonstration outside Waco, Texas. With high-powered fans and SpaceX thrusters, the car also lifted itself over a moving lineup of Tesla vehicles: a Cybercab, Cybertruck, Tesla Semi, Model Y, and Model 3.
Tesla first revealed the second-generation Roadster in 2017, nearly nine years ago, and the event did not include a delivery date.
Tesla showed the Roadster accelerating from 0-60 miles per hour in one second. CEO Elon Musk insisted the maneuvers weren’t just a preview of experimental hardware: “This will be the actual car that’s on the roads,” he said. “It literally is just going to puff itself up, and uh, and be able to do this, these maneuvers whenever you’d like.”
That’s a promise about the eventual road car, not a delivery schedule. What Tesla demonstrated at the event doesn’t, by itself, establish when those capabilities will reach customers.
Musk credited collaboration between the two companies for the car’s unusual abilities. “This is the culmination of incredible work by Tesla and SpaceX Engineers working closely together to make something you haven’t seen in any movie, better than any James Bond car,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this. You know when I suggested this to the team, I thought, ‘Am I crazy?’”
Before the event, Musk had said the Roadster “will be very different from what was shown previously” and promised the “most exciting, whether it works or not, demo ever of any product.” An earlier plan reportedly took a different approach: The Information reported that the car was going to drive upside down on a magnetized ramp before hovering. Musk allegedly scrapped that version.
He has described the Roadster as “the best of the last of the human-driven cars.” In his telling, it’s a halo car rather than a major source of sales. He has said he’s “not sure it moves the needle massively from a revenue standpoint.”
His safety comments have been less reassuring. Musk previously said that “safety is not the main goal” with the new Roadster. On a podcast earlier this year, he explained: “If you buy a Ferrari, safety is not the number one goal. I say, if safety is your number one goal, do not buy the Roadster.” Tesla would “aspire not to kill anyone in this car,” he added.
It’s been a long road from reservations to thrusters. The demonstration comes almost nine years to the day after the Roadster made a surprise appearance at the end of Tesla’s 2017 Semi reveal. A modernized take on Tesla’s first-ever car, it was initially promised for delivery within a few years. Customers could reserve one with a $50,000 deposit, while some paid $250,000 for one of 1,000 “Founders Series” versions.
The thrusters aren’t a new ambition. Musk proposed them in 2018, writing on Twitter: “SpaceX option package for new Tesla Roadster will include ~10 small rocket thrusters arranged seamlessly around car.” He continued: “These rocket engines dramatically improve acceleration, top speed, braking & cornering. Maybe they will even allow a Tesla to fly …”
Other projects then took priority. Later that year, Tesla struggled through what Musk eventually called “production hell” with the Model 3 sedan. The company subsequently moved on to the Model Y SUV, which became the world’s best-selling vehicle, and the Cybertruck, which the source account describes as a commercial flop by Tesla’s own standards. Roadster delays followed in 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024.
As Tesla moved beyond those vehicle launches, Musk began discussing the Roadster again. Late last year, he told Joe Rogan he wanted to reveal it by the end of 2025. One week later, at the shareholder meeting where he was awarded a $1 trillion pay package, he moved the reveal to April 1, 2026.
An April Fools’ Day event would give him “some deniability” if another delay became necessary, Musk said. “Like, I could say I was just kidding,” he said at the time. Tesla did postpone it again, then tried to hold the event on October 1 before severe weather forced another delay. The repeated postponements have prompted a number of high-profile customers to speak out over the years.
For customers who put down $50,000 or $250,000, the unresolved question is more practical than the airborne stunts: when will Tesla turn the demonstration into a car it can deliver?
